No sound after an XP install

[swifto]

Hi there, first time caller so apologise in advance for being a nube. I recently reinstalled XP but I have no sound. Ive tried various speakers and headphones. Ive tried reinstalling drivers. Ive got screen burn on my retinas from staring at device manager and Ive tried shaking my first at the patch of sky I think God lives in.

Sound and Audio device properties shows "no audio device" and hardware shows microsoft kernal audio spliter & acoustic echo - "cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a device already running (code 42)". Device manager shows them both with yellow "!".

Ive uninstalled and rebooted/reinstalled pretty much everything in Sound,Vid & Game Controllers. It also holds audio codecs, legacy audio, legacy video, media control, MPU 401 compatible midi, soundmax integrated digital audio, standard game port and video codecs.

Found the manual for Asus K7 DDR barebone system and tells me its SiS 7012 audio driver. CPU is AMD Athlon XP & ASUS A7SC with a SIS740 chipset

Probably something really dumb Im doing as far from being an expert, have just downloaded Everest as read it may be useful.

 

[Tmagic650]

The motherboards sound chip may have died. Try installing a PCI sound card

 

[LookinAround]

First,

• Make sure devices are connected and powered on
• Click Start->Run, enter: msinfo32. Click the + sign next to Components to expand it
• Click Problem Devices. Anything appear?
• If yes, click on it, Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy it, Ctrl-V to paste into next post
• On the other hand, if no devices are listed, tell me so

Then Generate and attach a DirectX report

• Click Start->Run, enter dxdiag
• Notice progress in lower left window corner
• When done, click Save Information button and save to your Desktop
• In TechSpot, use the paper clip icon to attach the report. (If you don't see icon you may need to first click Go Advanced)

 

[swifto]

Hi all, first off since posting I ran ccleaner and removed C-Media WDM Audio driver, (not shown in add/remove programmes), after a very quick uninstall it asks you to reboot the computer and does so anyway as soon as you click ok but the sound came back as windows closed, but it had gone by the time it rebooted and C-Media was still there when I checked ccleaner.

After experimenting I got the sound to work fine for a while as long as I didnt click the "to remove driver click ok" as it reboots and I lose it again. What a tease.

Tried to reinstall SiS 7012 PCI audio drivers but get an alreday in use error.

So to my amateur eye software not hardware Tmagic. LookinAround - tried the system info for prob devices and get a cant colect information message - file may be moved or missing. Seems to be on most things in Sys Info. Ran the dx report and attached.

Thanks for replying chaps.

BTW - Just started having this problem but wont play around fixing it until someone here recommends the fix as a bit complicated - daniweb .com/forums/thread25517.html

 

[Tmagic650]

The DX list says no sound card installed. Driver issue or hardware problem, adding a separate PCI or USB sound device would bypass your current problem. Try using a free driver cleaner program to get rid of all traces of any sound drivers left on your computer. Then install the proper sound driver. You probably installed the wrong sound driver, and then attempted to install another sound driver on top of the original "bad" sound driver

 

[LookinAround]

Hmmm... Several things....

1. Your problem with can't create a Problem Device Report isn't related to your sound card problem. But to fix this, you should reinstall PC Help and Support for XP. Good to fix as it's good to have access to native MS PC help support for your XP computer

2. Windows is detecting your sound hardware on your motherboard, but its audio driver is missing
3. From what i can see, i agree SIS 7012 audio driver is correct for your sound card. Did you download the driver from SIS?

4. Take a close look through Ctl Pnl->Add/Remove Programs. Look through all entries for anything that might be there installed for your sound. Do you find anything? Uninstall it.

5. Now try reinstalling the Sis Audio Driver. If it still fails:
> Could you do a screen shot to capture the error message?
> Also see [post=939115]How To Report Your Computer's Device Manager Data[/post] and generate a report so i can see

 

[swifto]

Hi there, many thanks for the reply.

I deleted any drivers I could find. The C-Media one only appears in CCleaner and as usual whenever I try to delete it it forces me to reboot and then is still in Cleaner and I get a message saying found new hardware - multimedia .

I have attached the SIS driver fail screens, a couple of other screens that may or may not be useful and the devmanview report you needed, thanks

Really appreciate your help and time so far.

Hi Tmagic, think you may be right, tried driver cleaner pro but still getting same problems - this C-Media driver could well be the offender, kind regards

 

[LookinAround]

Hi Swifto

Several things

1. Tracking this problem down may get to be a pain (tho i'm willing to give it a shot if you want to ). So keep in mind, it still may be easiest at some point to bite-the-bullet and just get a cheap add-on USB sound card (or do a reformat/reinstall again!)

2. That said....

Hi Tmagic, think you may be right, tried driver cleaner pro but still getting same problems - this C-Media driver could well be the offender, kind regards

I also agree with Tmagic. And suspect the problem may be due to a bad CMedia installer (which also doesn't uninstall itself correctly)

3. So note your Sis Installer message is complaining about an existing SERVICE not a driver or device. Please provide a snapshot of your Windows services.
> See How To Display and Report Detail about your System's Windows Services

4. just fyi... if you're seeing CMedia Audio listed in CCleaner's uninstaller but not in Add/Remove Programs.. here;'s my guess one reason why:
> Installed programs actually have the OPTION to tell Windows NOT to display them in Add/Remove Programs!

To verify (for yourself) and you can also provide me a list of all your Add/Remove entries (including entries hidden by Windows) by downloading MyUninstaller and run it
> Click Edit->Select All then File->Save Selected
> In the file save pop-up, change the File Type (in the pull down menu) to Tab Delimited File
> Then save as a TXT file and attach it to your next post (using the TechSpot paper clip icon)

Then we can see what's going on for next steps

 

[swifto]

Hi there guys, still no sounds and had a lovely week of nursing a sick 3 years old and then his teething baby brother so computer time (or as I now like to consider it - “the time vampire:dead::evil:”) has been rather tight.

I did find a few hours in the week and took the pc into local computer shop and gave in and said can you put a new sound card in it. Bought it, asked him if he could put it in. Guess what – didn’t work, the guy spent half an hour scratching his head baffled as to why it wouldn’t work and getting progressively more irritated. He did say he felt the problem with the new sound card was that the old sound card was working fine but the drivers were the problem.

Then he said he was “sick of this, cant fix it” (quote), took out the sound card and abruptly gave me my money back whilst avoiding eye contact. So I walked out of the shop, tail between my legs mentally apologising for bringing him a PC to his PC repair shop that he couldn’t repair. Yeah.

Anyway, I have attached the reports you wanted and more determined than ever to fix the thing! The C-Media driver has reapeared in add remove programs, as with CCleaner it just reinstalls after uninstall.

 

[Tmagic650]

Have you thought about doing a fresh Windows install now?

 

[LookinAround]

Hi there guys, still no sounds and had a lovely week of nursing a sick 3 years old and then his teething baby brother so computer time (or as I now like to consider it - “the time vampire:dead::evil:”) has been rather tight. <snip>

Wow, from your last post sounds like quite an escapade thus far!!

As to what's possibly next, here's some info as best i can tell..

1. Most of the devices you're seeing listed under Sound in Device Manager are "Windows software devices". The device for your hardware sound card is the device named: SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
/* edit */ In sentence above, when i say they're "Windows devices" i mean they're Windows "software" devices (i.e. pseuo-devices) vs. SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio which is device name of the actual sound card hardware device on your computer /* end edit */

2. Still, even Windows software devices need their drivers installed correctly. It seems this poorly behaved C-media driver that won't uninstall itself correctly is interfering with all the sound stuff (both the Windows sound devices as well the hardware sound card)

3. While we can try to manually remove the C-media driver, it can have different pieces scattered across the Windows registry so can be tricky
==> It may be simplest and safest to do (yep, another) fresh clean reinstall BUT the first question is: Do you know how this screwed up C-Media driver got onto your hard drive and installed in the first place? (as you want to avoid the same problem next time around!)
==> Where did the C-Media driver come from?? Did you download the C-Media driver yourself?? Or did it appear using Windows Update (which on occasion does pick the wrong driver)

In any event, whether you choose to just reinstall or want to try manual removal first, the first thing you'll need to do is backup all your stuff
> Do you have backup software? Do you have a large external drive to store your backups?
> If needed, EASUS Todo Backup is freeware and will create a backup image of your complete hard drive

I guess in summary
> Where did that C-media driver come from in the first place?
> Backup all your stuff

/* EDIT */
And let us know what you want to do next. Reinstall or try manual removal? I can see 2 C-media services running..... tho it's not yet clear what method C-media is using to reinstall itself after uninstall

 

[srboffin]

Hi, After configuring and installing the Operating System you won't get the audio installed with in the Operating System. It is possible only with the Linux Operating System, But here you have to install the driver cd or the motherboard cd which is given to at the time of purchase of your system. If you have any other problem in conversion of videos to audios, MP3 to MP4. Please let me know, I am there to help you at any time. Srboffin.

 

[Tmagic650]

"Hi, After configuring and installing the Operating System you won't get the audio installed with in the Operating System"...

Of course you won't!
Some motherboard drivers come with video and audio chipset drivers, but with others you have to install video and audio drivers separately. Swifto's problem started when the wrong sound driver was installed. If he can find the correct sound driver and install it after a fresh Windows and motherboard chipset driver, he might very well have sound once again

 

[outlander]

Reinstall your O.S and let Windows detect the hardware and install the driver on its own!! Gud Luck